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Saturday, December 21, 2013

10 Tips for the iPhone

Did you get an iPhone for Christmas? Depending on when you are reading this, you might not know yet. Regardless, here are 10 tips to get you better acquainted with your new device.

1. Using your Head Phones

The EarPods that are shipped with the newest iPhones are great for listening to music, making hands free calls, and navigating your phone. There are the obvious features as shown on the headphone remote: (+) volume up / (-) Volume down, and the centre unlabelled button is Play/Pause. But there is more than that packed into the centre button. A double-click will jump to the next track. A triple-click will go to the previous track. And a press and hold will start a conversation with Siri.

2. Take better Selfies

Does the length of your arms interfere with the quality of selfie you are able to take? Not to worry Apple has an accessibility option for that... well kind of. Your EarPods can give you a wired remote shutter button. Simply open your Camera app and with EarPods plugged in use the (+) button to activate the shutter. This can be especially useful to get the group shot selfie without having any faces cut off.

3. Shutter Button

In keeping with the camera, you do not need to use the on-screen button to snap photos. Just as the EarPods can be used as a shutter button, the iPhone's (+) volume hardware button will also activate the camera's shutter while that app is open. It's function does not stop there either, the same works with the stop/start recording of video. I particularly like this feature as it promotes proper orientation for capturing video. Together we can stop VVS, the key is awareness!

4. Take Picture or Video While "Doing" Other Things

With iOS 7 there are a few glitches in programming that have made certain things possible. Using the Shutter Button Tips above, you can discreetly capture picture and video while appearing to be busy with other things. Simply open the camera app and do either any of the following: open Notification Center, open Multi-tasking, open Control Center. The camera app will stay active in the background and you can use the shutter button to activate the camera. If you are wanting to utilize video mode, be sure to slide over to the "Video" or "Slo-mo" option before masking the camera view.

5. Pinch Back to Photo Albums

Now that we have well covered how to take Photos, here's a quick tip for viewing. In your Camera Roll if you are in a single image, you can use a pinch gesture to go back to the groups view.

6. Slide Type with Numerical Keyboard

Every so often while texting or tweeting you do need to use punctuation (I would actually strongly encourage it). It can be a hassle tapping in and out of the numeric keyboard (123). My biggest frustration is the need to tap back to the standard keyboard (ABC). Next time you decide to use punctuation try this: tap the (123) keyboard option and slide your finger to the desired punctuation or number and release your touch there. Like magic, the character will be inserted and the alphabet keyboard will re-appear.

7. Calendar Intervals

Unless you are a work-a-holic it is unlikely that you schedule your day down to the individual minute. When creating a calendar event double-tap the minutes option to toggle between 1 and 5 minute intervals.

8. Get Back to the Top

Occasionally there are really long lists that we scroll through. Facebook and Twitter feeds along with over crowded email inboxes are some of the worst. It does not help that they are updated from the top. Not to worry if you need to get back to the top of anything quickly simply tap the time in the centre of the stays bar. Presto, you're back at the top.

9. Get Better Weather

With iOS 7's redesign of Notification Center the weather feature really got the short end of the stick. I bet you didn't know that the weather phrase was clickable. A quick tap will open the full weather detail in the built in app.

10. Charge Faster

There are many articles out there about how to get the most of your iPhone's battery (heck, I even wrote one). The downside to these battery saving tips is they typically turn off the features that make your phone fun and useful. so instead of turning off all those features just use this technique to get more charge in less time. All you need to do is turn "Airplane mode" ON while your phone is plugged in. It also helps if you keep your phone locked. Please do take note that you should not do this if you are expecting a call as airplane mode disables signal communication. With this method I have gain 30% charge in about 15 minutes.